Ben Carson can believe a lot

Famed neurosurgeon, author, and Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson feels under attack from the media and liberals. He blames this in part on being a black American who doesn't hold to socially liberal or economically progressive views. The Washington Post's Jonathan Capehart notes that Carson's critics are reacting to bigoted and incendiary comments that the candidate's made.

In April 2013, Carson linked gays to pedophiles and “people who believe in bestiality.” His attempted explanation to NBC News’s Andrea Mitchell led to a ridiculous “That’s not an orange. …That’s a banana” analogy that still makes no sense. In October 2013, he famously said, “You know, Obamacare is really, I think, the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery.”

And:

“the likelihood of Hitler being able to accomplish his goals would have been greatly diminished if the people had been armed.”

“I personally believe that this theory that Darwin came up with was something that was encouraged by the adversary.” The Adversary is a nickname for the devil; it’s the actual translation of the word “Satan.”.....He also dismissed the Big Bang, calling it a “fairy tale.”

Carson proves that to be a brain surgeon you don't exactly have to be a rocket scientist. Or any kind of scientist, frankly. You have to have a certain degree or quality of native intelligence and aptitude (including the highly admirable ability to concentrate for long periods of time), be extremely knowledgeable about various and highly technical specialist fields, and have far above average eye-hand coordination.

Carson has all of these things, and other skills and strengths besides. But surgeons are not by definition scientists...or for that matter economic, foreign, or energy policy experts. That's partially how it's possible for Carson to believe a half-dozen idiotic things every day between breakfast and lunch, including that somehow the Theory of Evolution is not true, that it is wrong despite its formal status alongside the Germ Theory of Disease (which he undoubtedly knows something about though probably less than an infectious disease specialist does), the Theories of Special and General Relativity, and the Theory of Plate Tectonics.

Carson clearly has the intelligence to author books, win numerous awards and distinctions including the Presidential Medal of Freedom he was honored with in 2008 for accomplishments in his field, to navigate political debates and interviews (with mixed results), and to fund-raise and organize as he did for hospitals and medical research—skills likely helping his political campaign, too.

But none of that exempts him from simultaneously being gullible and misinformed about a host of matters vital to the republic's governance, as well as certain matters key to a proper understanding of observable reality.

And none of his intelligence or skills, as Jonathan Capehart notes, exempt him from holding incendiary and ignorant ideas and spouting them—even as he does so in his slow, soft-spoken, modulated way (almost like he's drowsy), which is in part the reason for his popularity; it is admittedly a change, probably welcomed by many voters, for a politician to not be thundering and podium-pounding all of the time or pronouncing in affected gravitas—a specialty of Carson's fellow candidate Sen. Ted Cruz. But ignorant and incendiary comments aren't less ignorant and incendiary just because they're given in bassoon tones instead of trumpeted flourishes.